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Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years (1998)

norvig.com

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Re: Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years (1998)

#23

Post by helboi4 »

yonaguska wrote: post #15
teaearlgraycold wrote: post #13

I’ve had a number of people approach me, at work and elsewhere, asking how they too can get one of those programming jobs. I always mention the timeline I was on, having started learning as a kid, making it a major hobby, getting a CS degree, internships, etc. and people are surprised and disappointed there’s no quick path. Or is there? Has anyone here done one of those 0 to 1 bootcamps with success?

The only people I've seen do the bootcamps with success were already very smart and/or coming from technical or heavy math backgrounds.

I mean I think I'm sorta smart but nah I have a 0 to bootcamp success story and I studied languages at uni and didn't even pass A-level maths in high school. I did a 3 month bootcamp. I was determined to end it with a job so I studied 12 hours a day 6 days a week. By the end I couldn't walk down the road without being out of breath but I had a job. My first year of employment was terrible. I was bad at everything and my employer had agreed to take bootcampers without any preperation of how to deal with that so just kept keeping me away from tickets, stunting my growth. After I wasn't renewed I spent a further 2 months doing intense studying and portfolio building and applied for my current job. They've supported me a bit and now 8 months in I'm a pretty competent junior I'd say. I feel like this is the level I should've been at at my first job but as long as you're willing to work at shitty companies for a bit you can just go from bootcamp to employed immediately and then work up to being good from there.

Edit: Whether I'm really worth the investment to these companies is another thing. I tend to think I'm not because I do sorta suck. But in terms of whether it's possible to go that path, be constantly employed and improve in time, yes it definitely is possible.

Re: Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years (1998)

#25

Post by [deleted] »

teaearlgraycold wrote: post #13

I’ve had a number of people approach me, at work and elsewhere, asking how they too can get one of those programming jobs. I always mention the timeline I was on, having started learning as a kid, making it a major hobby, getting a CS degree, internships, etc. and people are surprised and disappointed there’s no quick path. Or is there? Has anyone here done one of those 0 to 1 bootcamps with success?

[deleted]

Re: Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years (1998)

#27

Post by thebosh »

teaearlgraycold wrote: post #13

I’ve had a number of people approach me, at work and elsewhere, asking how they too can get one of those programming jobs. I always mention the timeline I was on, having started learning as a kid, making it a major hobby, getting a CS degree, internships, etc. and people are surprised and disappointed there’s no quick path. Or is there? Has anyone here done one of those 0 to 1 bootcamps with success?

I did a grad scheme where a consultancy trained me for 3 months and then worked for them under contract for 2 years. I studied humanities at university and had never coded before.

The first 2 years were very hard and it felt like swimming upstream the entire time as I didn't have that basis. It was only at the end of the 2 year programme that I actually felt like I could provide value independently.

A lot of my knowledge is very applied and I've noticed that I lack the CS fundamentals which sometimes makes it a bit harder as I'm having to learn 'basics' as I go.

In fairness my role is a Data Engineer now so it's a lot lighter on the more traditional CS areas like Data Structure and Algorithms.

Re: Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years (1998)

#28

Post by calibas »

> The key is deliberative practice: not just doing it again and again, but challenging yourself with a task that is just beyond your current ability, trying it, analyzing your performance while and after doing it, and correcting any mistakes. Then repeat. And repeat again.

I think this is the really important part, you have to challenge yourself and go outside of your comfort zones to keep learning.

Re: Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years (1998)

#29

Post by gwill »

teaearlgraycold wrote: post #13

I’ve had a number of people approach me, at work and elsewhere, asking how they too can get one of those programming jobs. I always mention the timeline I was on, having started learning as a kid, making it a major hobby, getting a CS degree, internships, etc. and people are surprised and disappointed there’s no quick path. Or is there? Has anyone here done one of those 0 to 1 bootcamps with success?

I've been programming professionally for 8 years now and came out of a bootcamp. I had taken some programming courses in high school and college for fun but my knowledge was very limited.

The bootcamp stayed true to the name. Core hours were 9-5 but many of us would get in early (usually 7am) and leave late (sometimes 10pm). I would also go in on weekends, sometimes taking Sunday off. I intentionally went to one in a different city so I wouldn't by distracted by a social life.

The focus was in ruby, then javascript. I got a job as an intern in C#/.NET a few months after graduating. I took the intern position because it seemed a tough sell to get a junior dev position right away. I was promoted to junior dev after just 2 weeks.

The school is no longer around, bought by kaplan and dissolved.

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